Higher Education
by Mandy
Summary: Don is finally able to attend college like he has always wanted to but it won't be easy.
1. Chapter 1

I know I said I would wait until at least one of my chaptered fics was complete but I couldn't help but to start working on this story. This fic is in Don's point of view. Don't worry if you don't understand the whole situation, details will be revealed in time. I thought I would have a lot of trouble putting this together but in truth I found it rather easy to write. I guess I needed a break from editing Self Discovery (It's so horrible, I can understand why people wouldn't want to read it). I hope I got Don's character down right. This is the first time I've written in this style so I'm hoping it sounds okay. Let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter one: The Dorms

I never thought this day would come. Who would have thought that a mutated turtle could ever go to college? So here I was, attending a college out in the Midwest. I was told that the people here would be friendlier and more willing to accept a "unique student" such as myself. I wasn't quite sure if that was true and if it would really make much of a difference. I knew it wasn't going to be easy and having people stare at you definitely was something I could never get used to. At least I have the opportunity now to actually learn like a normal human being would.

Orientation was awkward, I knew nobody and to everybody else, I must have been the mascot of the school. I spent a lot of my life, avoiding people, closing myself off to the world. I would get my hands on any book I could and immerse myself in it, totally oblivious to my brethren. I never really felt like I fit in, considering the rest of my brothers thoroughly enjoyed the years of ninjitsu instruction or at least more than me anyways. Tomes opened up a whole new world to me that seemed far more interesting. Actual human friends were few and far between.

I met my roommate that day; he was taller than me (of course, I'm quite short compared to a lot of humans) and had strong built shoulders. His hair was red and freckles had an affinity for his pale skin. His name was Thomas (Tom for short) and he had a scholarship for football. At least he had a scholarship for something interesting, while mine was just because of my obscure appearance.

I was the first to arrive at my new home for the next year. It wasn't very big at all. There were two loft beds on either side of the room, a closet, some drawers, and a desk in each side. April and Casey had been kind enough to escort me to the campus. They were now my legal guardians even if they were more like older siblings to me.

"Wow, nice digs." Casey said sarcastically. I had heard about how small the rooms were and the rumors were affirmative. One could ponder on how two people.. .er…one person and a turtle could possibly live in a closet but it certainly was an improvement over the sewers. I glanced out from my seventh floor window marveling at the view. I could get used to being above rather than below the earth. April was busy looking the room over trying to figure out where to put what little furniture she had so eagerly bought for me.

"So you think you'll be okay living in such close quarters, Don?" Casey had asked from behind me. I turned around and shrugged.

"Well, I think I'll be able to get used to it in due time as long as my roommate is manageable." Normally as a freshman, you don't get a dorm room to yourself but the school had graciously offered it to me considering my situation. I had considered the possibility of having my very own room, a place I could take refuge. Even when I lived with my brothers, I had my own space where I could think and lose myself. That would've been the easy route but after much thought, I decided I better get a roommate. How else am I supposed to integrate myself into society if I continue to instinctually isolate myself? I heard a noise coming from the entrance of room and glanced up to see my new roommate. He smiled nervously at me as he walked towards me. I returned the smile, feeling equally nervous.

"Hi, I'm Tom, and you must be Don-a-tell-o? Am I pronouncing your name right?" He reached a hand out and I accepted it.

"Yes, that's correct but you can just call me Don." At this point he terminated our handshake, nervousness had seemed to vanish at this point. Before I knew it he was patting me on my back like I was an old buddy of his and laughed boisterously.

"Well I think we'll get along just fine." His voice boomed. The guy that I thought had been a quiet giant was quite loud and this was something I would eventually get used to. Although, at the time, I found his personality to be a bit annoying, it wasn't bad either. He had a good heart anyways.

April and Casey proceeded to introduce themselves to Tom. Casey and him seemed to hit it off, discussing various sports. I pretty much tuned all of this out. It's not that I didn't like sports or anything like that, I just had way too many nervous thoughts running around in my head at the time.

April had coordinated the room arrangement with Tom and after much moving between the four of us, everything was moved in and unpacked. It finally started to feel like a home. After all that and the long day of boring orientation, I was exhausted.

"Well Don, it looks like you're settled in and it's getting late so Casey and I are going to leave now. We'll be back to say goodbye before we go to the airport." I nodded. I felt a little uneasy with the last part of the familiarity of my life leaving. April proceeded to hug and give me a quick peck on the cheek. Casey then grabbed me in a "manly" embrace and looked me right in the eyes as if he was about ready to give me some fatherly advice.

"Hang in there, Don." He released me from his grip and I looked between the two and smiled.

"I'm sure I'll be fine, thanks for helping me move in."

"It's no problem, Don, we'll see you tomorrow. Get plenty of sleep."

"Yes mother." I replied back. April smiled at me and glanced over at Tom.

"It was nice meeting you." Tom laughed.

"Same here, miss." With a wave the couple left me alone with Tom. I glanced at him.

"Well I don't know about you but I'm beat." I proceeded to change into my pajamas. Wearing clothes was another thing I would have to get used to. My brothers and I could care less what we were wearing around each other but in the human world, it was unacceptable to walk around in the nude. In a way, I was thankful to wear clothes. There would be less for people to gawk at. I secretly hoped it would help me blend in with the crowd but I seriously doubted that considering my skin condition and the lack of hair. I maneuvered my way up into my new bed and slipped beneath the covers. It felt so good and I was ready to pass out at this point.

"Yeah, I guess I could turn in as well." Tom had stripped himself to only a t-shirt and boxers, shutoff the lights, and climbed up into his respective loft. I thought perhaps I could get some much-needed sleep but no such luck. Not only was my roommate loud, he was also talkative. I couldn't understand what part of the meaning of sleep he had lost. Despite my irritation, I guess it would do me good to learn about the person that I would be occupying this small space with for the next few months. That's when I learned he grew up on a farm in Iowa, played football, and his favorite food was goulash. He didn't expect me to divulge any personal information about myself at this point because apparently he thought this session would lull me to sleep. Eventually, I zoned him out and I was in sweet blissful sleep. I had a dream that night about being at home, effectively increasing my feelings of being homesick.

I had forgotten to set the alarm the prior night and yet some noise was waking me up the next morning. I sleepily realized it was the phone and I quickly leapt off my bed to answer it.

"Hello?" I answered, still feeling a bit drowsy and wondering what time it was. A soft, familiar voice answered back.

"Hello, Donatello, is that you my son?" I gripped the phone closer to my ear and sat down at my desk.

"Hi, sensei. With all the excitement from yesterday, I forgot to call home. I'm sorry." Soft snoring filled the background noise of the room. I smirked to myself realizing that my roommate was a heavy sleeper.

"It's alright, is everything okay? Are you adjusting well?" Well I wasn't dead yet so I guess that was a plus.

"I'm doing alright. My roommate has become accustomed to me. April and Casey helped arrange my room so I'm all settled in. Their flight leaves tonight."

"Well I'm glad to hear that you're doing well." Splinter sounded a bit distracted and the noises in the background clued me in as to why. Splinter sighed. "I think your brother is really anxious to talk to you even though I tried to teach him patience." I smiled, an image of Splinter glaring at my brother Mikey, flashed through my mind.

"Hey, Donnie. How are you? You miss me?" I chuckled. It felt good to hear his voice, hyper as it was.

"Nah, it's so nice being away from you." I teased. He was probably pouting from the other end of the line now.

"Aww…so what's it's like over there? Is your roommate cool? How's the food, probably not as good as your favorite brother's right?"

"Whoa whoa, slow down. So many questions."

"Yeah, but you have such a good memory, I'm sure you'll have no problem remembering them."

"Okay, um..the land is very flat with a lot of farm land. My roommate seems like he's a nice guy but he sort of reminds me of a certain annoying brother of mine. As for the food, I haven't tried it yet. They gave us these bag lunches yesterday and I was way too tired to eat supper. I guess I'll find out during the family brunch they're having today." Mikey was satisfied with my answers.

"You've hogged the phone enough, Mike." I could hear my ever-responsible brother tell my brother, pretty much to hand the phone over.

"Hey Don, you okay over there, keeping a low profile?" I had to laugh in my mind. My brother Leo could be too paranoid at times.

"Well it's not like I can avoid people staring at me but they seem to be accepting me. I guess it'll take awhile for them to get used to my presence." Raph grabbed the phone at this point, which from the sounds of the background noises, Leo was resistant to the action.

"Hey Don." Raph said gruffly in the phone.

"Hi Raph." I replied.

"Just so you know if anybody hurts you, I'll come over there personally and take care of it okay?"

"Okay, Raph I'll keep that in mind." I replied shaking my head. I missed all of my brothers. This was the first time in my life that I would be away from them. Splinter had gotten a hold of the phone again.

"Be careful my son and study hard."

"Yes, father." The phone call had ended and right after I had placed the phone down on its cradle, it rang once again.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Don. Casey and I will be over there around nine to go to the family brunch. Did you sleep well, I'm guessing I didn't wake you considering how fast you answered the phone." I swiveled in my chair and took note that Tom was barely awake but then fell right back down on his pillow.

"No, Splinter and my brothers called right before you did. I had a pretty restful night." For the first time that morning, I looked at the clock. It was almost 7:30am.

"Casey is still sleeping, even in a different time zone." I had to roll my eyes, leave it to Casey to sleep in even if the time change was to his advantage. "Otherwise we probably would have already been over there."

"That's alright, it looks like my roomie isn't much of a morning person anyways." I ended the phone call with April since there wasn't much else to talk about. I threw on some jeans, and a t-shirt with one of those brand names, old navy. I checked to see if my Internet was working and skimmed through the news to see what was happening in the world. The loud ring of the phone interrupted my thoughts as I reached over to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Um, Hello this is Tom's mother, is Tom there?"

"Um..yes, this is his roommate Don. I'll go wake him up for you." I heard her softly laugh on the other end.

"Yeah, that sounds like my Tom." I went over to his loft shook him a few times and then handed him the cordless phone. He grabbed it from me and groggily answered it. I heard a knock at the door, glanced at the time, and realized it was probably April and Casey. Deciding not to disturb his phone call, I grabbed my keys, and met April and Casey outside the door.

I was pretty much in a daze for the rest of the day. There were a lot of people at brunch who were way too interested in me. People stared and pointed at me as if I were an exhibit and some people talked loudly. What, they thought I wouldn't notice? Just concentrating on the task at hand was all I could do to get through the day. I wondered if today was this bad, how much longer I could deal with this before I lost my sanity. I was really glad to have April and Casey there with me though.

Later that day, I met Tom's parents. I could see the similarities between him and his father but then again all humans looked like. Okay, maybe they don't but when you grow up looking at four turtles, a rat, and, the same people all the time on TV, you don't learn the distinguishing characteristics between people as well. Personality wise, I could see where he got his obnoxious behavior yet I'd rather have that any day than be talked about but never talked to.

I knew my time with my surrogate family was coming to an end and before I knew it, I was saying my goodbyes. April gave me a tight squeeze and I thought she would never let go; part of me didn't want her to. I wasn't going to see them again until winter break, which to me seemed so far away from now.

I had an extra day to habituate myself to my new settings before classes actually started. The school, of course, had all of these activities to aid us in adjusting to our new lives. It lessened the feelings of being thrown into a whole new world. At least I wasn't the only one experiencing a new stage in their life. Tom and I pretty much hung out together that whole day. First we had dorm only activities where the RA made us sit around in a circle and introduce ourselves to everybody on the floor. It was only the beginning of the day and I was sick of giving the standard information about myself.

"My name is Donatello. I'm from New York and my major is undecided. My hobbies are computers and building mechanical things." Not to mention getting myself nearly killed in fights with ninjas. This pretty much continued through out the day. Tom did not seem like the type of person who could notice when a person was struggling so it was very surprising when he did. That night, they had some party thing, which was a little too much for me. I had never felt so shy in my life and one hour into it I was about ready to panic. It was still so hard to be around so many humans at once. So he took me outside for a while, away from the crowds and we just hung out. Not quietly of course, he was telling me a story of a prank from his high school days that I half listened to. This was when I made my second friend. He had come up to us, and introduced himself. He was shorter than Tom, probably about normal height and still taller than me. He had this mischievous glint in his eyes that made me unsure I really wanted to talk to him in the first place.

"Hi, I'm Terry and you are..how do you pronounce your name again?"

"It's Donatello but you can just call me Don."

"You Italian or something?" I scratched my head. Really, I didn't hate the name my loving father had given me but it sure caused a lot of problems in my life. People didn't know what to make of the name even if it was the name of an artist, it's not like everyday normal people really follow that sort of thing.

"Um no, it's an artist's name, my father really liked art."

"So um, can I ask? Is it cool to have a shell?" I just blinked not expecting such a straight to the point question. This wasn't the only blunt question he would ask me. There were a couple of particular questions that he would be the only person to have the guts to ask about and of course I was too embarrassed to dignify with an answer. He certainly was curious and seemed to have no personal boundaries whatsoever. I have to say that initially, I didn't really like the guy but I did have to commend him on being honest and actually engaging himself in a conversation with me so in the end I didn't mind having him around.

And that's it for chapter 1. I have most of chapter 2 done so expect a quick update within a week, that is if I remember.


	2. Chapter 2

Well I'm not sure whether or not this fic is a hit or miss. I wasn't really sure what to expect. I only wrote this fic for myself because I found working on it made me feel better whenever I felt stressed out. So even if not a lot of people like it, I'm going to continue working on it as long as it helps manage my stress and since I know that there are some out there that do like it (thanks for reviewing and adding it to your favorites!), I will continue to post it online. Hopefully it'll make your day as much as it helps me through my days. I was a little hesitant about the style of the fic so I'm still getting used to writing in first person. I'm even a little unsure about Don's character but then again I feel like I could never get him right. Anyways, enough babbling from me, if you're still with me then please enjoy 

Chapter 2: Classes

Well considering the fact that my major was undecided, for my first semester of classes, it was decided that I should take some generals and some classes I found interesting. So the classes that I was signed up for during orientation were: World History, Speech, Calculus, Chemistry, and English Literature. I had a lot of interests and possible majors I wanted to try out but I didn't know exactly which ones to choose quite yet. It's not like I was in a real rush anyways. Plenty of freshmen did not have a chosen path in life, lest a major. I didn't have a lot of choices, considering all of the upperclassmen and a majority of the freshmen class registered way before me since there were orientation sessions throughout the summer.

The first couple of weeks were rough. I felt really uncomfortable around everybody else in my classes but eventually people seemed to accept me as one of the students and not as some novelty.

Tom and I had World History at 8am. It didn't seem to be a favorite amongst the rest of the students considering the professor would drone on and on. I noticed the amount of students in the class and the ones that were actually awake diminished throughout the first part of the semester. I guess I could understand; it just didn't seem worth it to get up at 8am when the notes he presented could be easily found online. That and the supplemental reading provided by the text was enough to get by without even attending the class. I postulated that being home schooled gave me this perspective on this particular course since Splinter had long gave up on teaching me other subjects besides the martial arts.

Since Tom and I were in the class together, I found it to be my unofficial duty to wake him up and motivate him to go to class.

"Come on, wake up, we have class." I said to him on the first day as I shook him. He mumbled in his sleep and then swatted my hand away. After a lot of the same actions being repeated, I left the room and came back with a glass of water. I poured it on his head. He sputtered and he scrunched his eyes. He wasn't very happy about it, at least from what I could gather.

"Damn it, why did you have to shove me in the pool." Even if I got a verbal response out of him, he still had no idea what was going on. He eventually came to and thought it was the funniest thing.

"Oh Don, you and your pranks." He said as he smacked me on the back of my shell on our way to class. I smiled, relieved that he wasn't mad. If I had done that to Raph, I would have been in a world of hurt. Well, actually Mikey had done it on more than one occasion and it wasn't pretty. You would think he would learn by now not to piss Raph off but I guess he found amusement in the subsequent reaction.

I usually awoke before my alarm went off which allowed me to allocate some time in the bathroom before much of the floor was even up. The bathroom would become incredibly busy right before 8 o'clock and space was limited. Then I would work on homework until the task of waking Tom from the dead would commence. Once awake, he would pretty much get out of bed, throw some clothes on and he was ready to go. For some reason, it didn't appeal to me to do everything last minute right before class. I really enjoyed the quiet, alone time I could squeeze out of each morning and it was a chance to collect my thoughts before the day began.

Some days, I had no luck whatsoever in getting him up and he would arrive late. The professor didn't think too nicely about it and made snide comments such as: "Forgot to set your alarm clock?" Sure I thought it was rude to show up to class late but who knows? There could have been different circumstances for the tardiness and that sort of comment could ruin a person's day. Tom seemed to take it in stride though.

"You think the professor hates me?" Tom had asked me after class one day.

"Hmmm..you know, I don't think he likes anybody except for the people actually majoring in History." I replied with a smirk.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, so, you want to get some breakfast now?" I nodded. It became a regular thing for Tom and I to eat breakfast right after history class. I had met up with Terry one morning and he wanted to know where Tom and I resided.

So from then on, Terry would show up at my dorm, uninvited and hang out. Fridays became a regular movie night with Terry, Tom and whoever else in the building would by chance pop right in and join us. It reminded me of being at home again. My brothers and I enjoyed viewing movies together quite frequently.

I later found out that Terry was actually an English major and he began tutoring me. I didn't have any problems with my writing skills but actually understanding the deeper meanings of fiction was actually a challenge for me. Sure, I liked to read books as a child but actually trying to interpret everything required a whole new perspective. I never realized how much work authors went into designing a well-layered story.

Tom was frequently gone for football practice, which left me to myself in the room for the afternoon. I was working on one of those dreaded English papers when Terry had come knocking at my door one day.

"Hi Terry." I said as I opened the door.

"Hey, Don." He said as he walked past me and seated himself on the futon. I walked over to my computer desk where I had been sitting before he interrupted me.

"Did you need help with your homework or something?" Tom and Terry both had algebra together and I discovered that it was a difficult class for many students. Terry would stop by to work on said homework and I would try my best to explain how to do the problems to both him and Tom while tackling my own homework.

"No, I was just bored and decided to stop by."

"Hmmm…" I absentmindedly said from my spot at the desk. At this point he turned on the TV. So basically, he was just going to sit there, in my room and watch TV. Didn't he have his own room to do that? After about 15 minutes of silence he finally spoke.

"I know you're annoyed at me for just hanging out in your room like this." Well duh!

"No, it's okay." I attempted to sound civil at this point. Terry smiled at me, which put me a little off guard.

"No, you're annoyed; I can tell. I just needed a place to hide out." I raised an eyebrow (if I had one to raise) and wondered what he could possibly be hiding from.

"Hiding from what?" Terry shifted his position on the futon.

"I caught my roommate in the middle of the act." He shuddered. "It was something I did not need to see." All I could do was nod in understanding. Yes, that was definitely something I did not want to see either. I was glad that Tom wasn't the type to use the room however he pleased like Terry's roommate Paul or some name like that. I had only met the guy a couple of times when stopping over there.

"Well, I guess considering the circumstance, you can hang out here for awhile." I offered. I really felt sorry for the guy now and was sincere about it. He finally spoke again probably going off from a tangent from the previous conversation and that was when he asked me an extremely personal question. I was almost mad enough to kick him out at that point. I took a few deep breaths, calmed myself, and totally ignored him for the rest of the evening before he took his leave. Sometimes I wondered if he did things like that on purpose.

My chemistry class was easy considering the fact that I had studied quite a bit of it on my own and so Lucy, one of my classmates had come up to me one day and asked me if I would be interested in joining her study group. She was half-Japanese and had lived in both Japan and California. She was very nauseatingly perky but she was nice to everybody, which I thought overall made her a very likeable person.

"So, Don, we got a study group going for Professor no neck's class, want to join us? I noticed that every time he calls on you, you always know the answer so we could really use someone like you." Professor no neck? Hmmm..I guess I wasn't the only one who took notice of the lack of a neck. I smiled at her and cocked my head curiously. I knew that all she wanted me for was my brain and yet I had a feeling she was just trying to find a reason to make me feel included. So I nodded.

"Okay, I'll do it but do I really need help because according to you, I'm doing just fine." Her smile grew as she adjusted her book bag on her shoulders.

"Well don't get too cocky, you never know, there might be material that will be even too hard for you, Mr. Brainiac. You'll have nowhere to run to and cry because you missed out on such a good chance." I looked down at my feet then back at her again, attempting to look like I was in deep thought.

"I guess you have a point." I playfully answered her. It was my first time going to any school which meant that I had no way of really knowing what to expect.

The first study session was a week after Lucy had initially probed me and we met in her room. There were about four other people in the group besides Lucy and myself. Lucy had quickly introduced me to the group but I completely missed who was who. Hopefully I would remember eventually. How embarrassing it would be if they found out how ignorant I was of a simple thing as their names. The first session went well and I was surprised at how slack it was. They worked on chemistry for a while and eventually some people in the group had graduated to working on other homework or just chatting about the normal things in life. I thought for sure I would be ostracized not only for my looks but the fact that all the material we went over was not difficult for me. They eagerly took my assistance without a second thought.

Calculus class came easy for me as well. I had long figured it out when making calculations for various projects I had going on at home. It was a boring class with a boring teacher. He was an elderly gentleman, hard to hear when facing the board, and I of course I wasn't learning anything new. I had tested out of algebra during orientation but there was no way of testing out of this class.

Speech class was one of the hardest classes for me. I had no problems, writing speeches, memorizing them, and speaking. I just hated having everybody staring at me. It wasn't something I was used to but as time went on, it got a little bit easier. Sure I was used to my family and friends staring at me if I happened to say something they couldn't comprehend but having strangers staring at me even if I knew it was only because I was giving a speech and nothing more.

Overall, I was really glad to be here. A month had already passed; the time seemed to be flying. Any novel experience at first can be a little scary but eventually you get used to the situation. Not only was I getting used to it, I was really enjoying myself. There were still a lot of things to get used to but I was soon beginning to forget what life was like back at home.

Being here, at this school was all thanks to Bishop. When he had started becoming civil towards us, I was totally on edge about the whole thing. Even now I feel uncomfortable about the situation, wondering if there was a catch. Apparently he had secured a higher up job that gave him the authority to legalize all of us as citizens, even though the rest of my family still currently resided in the sewers. There was a lot of publicity that followed. I never dreamed that it would lead to this, going to college at the age of 16.

End of Chapter 2. Well I'm not sure when the next update will occur. I'll be gone over the weekend to go see the new tmnt movie and go to an anime con. I thought I better update before I leave. I haven't started working on the next chapter quite yet but I imagine I will come Monday.


	3. Chapter 3

Everybody seen the new movie yet? Isn't it like totally awesome!? Thanks again everybody for reading my fic, even if I feel a little squeamish about sharing it with everybody. Some of the things in this fic are from my own experiences, some from other people I know, and stuff I made up. Here's the next chapter, enjoy!

Chapter 3: Friends

It was already the second week of October. I was sitting alone in my room when the phone rang. The cordless had probably been sucked into another dimension; I could hear it but knowing where it was hiding was another story. I searched around through the pile of clothes that were lying on the floor; the muffled sound of the phone was nearby. Tom was planning on doing laundry but all the washers in the basement of our dorm had been in use. Then he had to run off to practice; that was a few days ago. I was sick of the stinky pile of clothes that had taken over our room but I didn't push Tom on the issue, I knew he was busy. I found the phone, under a pair of red boxers with some sort of fish design on them. I shuddered a little and wondered how the heck it ended up there but remembered when the phone rang loudly in my right hand that I had other tasks at hand. I pressed the talk button.

"Hello? Don speaking."

"Oh hey, bro, this is Mikey."

"Oh, hey what's up?" I asked nonchalantly. My brother had been calling me more than once a week. He claimed that he missed me because Leo and Raph could be too much for him to handle at times.

I made my way back to my desk and seated myself, inadvertently trying to locate the carrot sticks I had been occasionally snacking on before the phone had interrupted me.

"Leo and Raph had a fight again today and have been ignoring each other and me all day. Talk about crabby." Yes, my two brothers tended to not get along very well and with me gone, apparently they thought it was okay to squabble more often. I felt a little guilty leaving Mikey in a domestic mess.

"I'm sorry to hear that. So what did those two fight about this time?" I sighed. I massaged my forehead with my free hand.

"I'm not really sure. Leo was being more bossy than usual at practice, which pissed off Raph. You know, some stupid, pointless fight. The both of them have pretty much ignored me all day since then. I miss having you around, then at least I'd have someone to talk to."

"I'm sorry, it's all my fault for going to school so far away." I crunched down on a carrot.

"No, it's okay, I know you really wanted to go to school and it's not like we could stay all together forever." Mike said sadly. Now that we were legal citizens, choices had opened up for us. Splinter was very reluctant about the whole idea and Leo wasn't too happy about me going to college in the first place. Sure I had my doubts at first but after much discussion with April and a little with Bishop, I decided that I would give it a try. Finally Splinter also came around for me and gave me his permission to go through with it. So far, everything was working out for me. I just hoped the rest of my brothers could find the things they wanted to accomplish in life. I could see why it would be hard to decide since before then, we never expected to even have any choices in the first place.

"So, how's the college life?"

"It's been good so far." I glanced out the window; the trees had started changing colors.

"How's Tom?"

"Oh, he's good. I haven't seen much of him lately since it's still football season. I only see him in class in the morning, we grab something to eat, and then he's pretty much gone the rest of the day and doesn't get back until I go to bed. On weekends, he's busy with football and has to go out of town for games quite frequently."

"Ah, how's your girlfriend." I just rolled my eyes.

"Lucy, is not my girlfriend, she's just a friend. Besides, she has a boyfriend." She did have a boyfriend but it seemed like every time I talked to her she always had someone new. She changed boyfriends as much as someone would change their socks.

"Uh huh..suuuure." I sulked so Mike left me alone about that issue. It's not that I didn't want a girlfriend but at the time I just wasn't really interested. I had so many new feats to learn and experience that I wanted to take one thing at a time. A girlfriend would just complicate things. Plus, I was confident in the fact that nobody in her right mind would ever find me attractive or was even interested in dating me. That was life I guess.

"How about your friend, Terry?" I groaned. Terry of course, had been stopping by a lot lately, not just on Fridays, but practically everyday. You would think the guy had no friends or nothing to do.

"He's good, he hangs around way too much though." Mike laughed at the other end of the phone.

"Yes! Someone to annoy you." I watched some of the students walking in and out of the building as some of the leaves gently blew around.

"Yes, I guess I do." Terry was annoying but at least he kept me company when I felt lonely or homesick. Even if I had to practically drag him out of the room some days. Although I currently resided on a campus, full of people, I still felt a sense of loneliness and isolation from everybody else. There were still people that wouldn't talk to me as if they were afraid or something. The truth was I was probably more perturbed of them then they were of me.

"Well I better let you go now, you probably have a lot of homework to do."

"Yeah, I've got to read some short story and answer a bunch of questions." Oh how I hated doing my English homework.

"Bye, take care Donnie."

"Bye, Mikey." I hung up the phone; the room fell dead with silence. All the warmth of home and family had left me and I was feeling awfully lonely again. I stood up to turn on the stereo that sat on the shelf over my desk but I heard a knock at the door before I had the chance to. It was probably Terry. I moved the chair from behind me and walked over the door to open it. It wasn't Terry; it was Lucy.

"Hey Donnie." She said brightly. One day, she out of the blue asked me if she could call me Donnie. I had no objections considering my family on a regular basis used the nickname. She looked extremely happy about it and I couldn't understand why but then again she was very expressive about everything.

"Hi." I opened the door wider and gestured to her to come in. I could have sworn that she just bounced right in. She sat herself down on the futon and I pulled my chair over and sat nearby.

"Well I just wanted to know if you wanted to go to a play with me tonight." A play sounded interesting but I wondered why she came over to ask me instead of just calling me up on the phone.

"Um..sure. Sounds like fun." She smiled.

"That's great. The play starts tonight at 7pm but I want to get there early so we can get a good seat".

"Okay." I replied, scratching my head.

"So anyways, I thought we could get a bite to eat in the commons before we go over there."

"Yeah, that sounds good."

"Great, is it alright if I hang out here with you for a bit before we leave." I glanced at the clock. It was only 4pm, which seemed a little too early to eat.

"Yeah, go ahead, make yourself at home." She was sprawled out in the futon on her stomach with her head propped up with her hands and her feet up in the air. She would tap her feet together every few seconds. "No wait, you already have, never mind. So what play is it anyways?" I hadn't really been paying much attention to the events on campus.

"It's Fiddler on the Roof." I nodded. I had watched the movie version with Mikey a long time ago and it was alright as far as musicals went. I had already agreed to it so it's not like I could back down from it now. I set my evil English book aside. I guess doing the assignment could wait until tomorrow. It was one of those things that I really did want to put off until the last minute.

So we chatted about chemistry class and various other things until we were ready to eat. I grabbed my keys and we exited the room together. We met up with some of her friends there and I joined the table eating my tator tot casserole and an apple. I mostly stayed quiet and enjoyed the conversation.

Once we had finished eating, we bid everybody adieu and were off to the play. It was very well done and even though I didn't really like musicals, I still had a good time. Lucy knew some of the people in the play and dragged me along to congratulate them on a job well done. Afterwards, I decided I better escort her back to her dorm to make sure she made it home in one piece. Lucy was humming songs from it to herself, which didn't help me get them unstuck from my head.

"You know I can take care of myself, you really don't have to walk me back." Lucy commented.

"Well if I read in the news the next day that they found you dead, I would feel so guilty." Lucy laughed.

"Okay, I guess I can't give you an issue that you're going to have to deal with for the rest of your life." She playfully shoved me on the side of my arm.

"Yeah, I think I got enough to deal with as it is, being different and all." I said while rubbing my arm.

"Eh…once you get past the looks you're just like anybody else, no big deal." I shrugged.

"I guess, just try telling that to everybody else."

"I'm sure in time, other people will warm up to you."

"I sure hope so, I'm tired of being treated like a celebrity but not the kind that people love."

"Awww…I'm sure there's someone out there that has a thing for green, bald men." I smiled.

"God, I hope not. That sounds really creepy." We both laughed.

Terry showed up at my dorm the following day, right after I had returned from chemistry lab. Lucy had been trying to annoy me to death by singing songs from the play. So I was tired but in a pleasant mood. I had finally managed to read my assigned story for English and was about ready to tackle the questions. So Terry worked with me through it, to my relief and I was finished with that dreadful assignment. We then decided to go eat together. I was starving after a long day and the fish and chips were adequate for the task.

"So you have a rat for a father and three other brothers. What a strange family." He commented.

"Yes, it's too bad you can't pick your family." I loved my family from the bottom of my heart even if they did irk me at times.

"I think your family sounds really cool." I shrugged.

"I guess, we're just like any other family." Well okay maybe not, we're strange. "Ummm..yeah right. Who am I kidding?" I placed my head on my hands to emphasize the emotions.

"Well Don, your family is probably more normal than mine." I hope I never meet his family even if I am curious as to how he got so messed up.

"My parents are divorced, I have a jerk for an older brother, and I my older sister married some guy that she hates half the time."

"What about your little brother? Nothing wrong with him?" Terry had told me before that he had an older sister, older brother, and a younger brother.

"Ah, he's too young to be tainted quite yet."

"Hopefully, he won't end up as annoying as you."

"Oh but I was really hoping he would."

"Well I hope for my own sanity that he doesn't."

We separated after eating and I went back to the dorms. Tom had returned from class and practice for the day. The pile of clothes was still on the floor where it had been for the past week. I wondered if they would ever see a clean day in their existence ever again.

"Ah, I see we still have the massive pile of clothes." I commented on the clothing monstrosity. Godzilla had nothing on this pile of apparel. Tom swiveled his chair around with a goofy smile on his face.

"Sorry, Don, I keep forgetting and every time I remember, there is no free washer." The dorms really needed to do something on the shortage of washer space. I guess us college students had way too much laundry to do. It was my first experience at having to deal with it and I wondered how people could stand to do laundry until I realized that not really anybody liked it. It was one of those chores that you wanted to procrastinate for as long as possible.

"Nah, that's all right I understand." At least put the clothes somewhere else while your waiting instead of all of over the freaking floor!

"I'll go check right now and see if any are free yet." I nodded sleepily and sat at my desk. Easy calculus problems awaited me to finish them before bed. I shifted out of my chair, turned the stereo on and listened to whatever popular music that was playing on the radio. I needed something to entertain my brain, even if it annoyed me. Tom returned, thankfully, clothes free. We had finally gained some floor space again. Eventually I finished the problems and stripped down to my boxers and threw on a t-shirt.

"Well I'm going to bed, Tom. Good luck with your sociology homework."

"Yeah, thanks bud. I'm going to need it." The radio was still softly playing music but I didn't really care, as long as it wasn't Tom's loud voice.

I climbed up into my loft and fell into a nice deep sleep. I dreamed that I was back at home again. My brothers and I were in the dojo practicing. The security alarm had then gone off and I went to check it out.

I slowly opened my eyes at that point. Everything was dark and there was a loud, blaring noise. Oh that's right, I'm here in the dorms, not back home, in the lair. It was the fire alarm. Oh great, I was just enjoying a nice session of REM too. I slowly made my way down from the bed and there was Tom sleeping through it all. How the heck could he not hear that!? So I got him to wake up and we both made our way outside, me lacking my pants. It's not like I cared or anything since I was used to nudity. We all had to stand out in the chilly outdoors at 2 o'clock in the morning until we were cleared to go back in. Rumor has it that somebody had burnt popcorn in the microwave. Well that's great that you want to stay up all night but do you have to get the rest of the building up? Tom and I returned back to the dorms. Tom was thankfully half asleep so I didn't have to hear him babble about who knows what like he tended to do before bed. The brain can't handle all this information when you're trying to transcend to dream land.

The next morning, Tom, for the life of him could not remember the fire alarm going off at all. We drudged our way to our favorite class…yeah right…history. I ate some scrambled eggs and an English muffin for breakfast afterwards before I bid farewell to Tom but before he left he asked me an interesting question.

"So, Don what are you doing for Thanksgiving?" I looked up after staring at my eggs in deep though, nibbling on my muffin.

"Um..nothing I guess. I'm not visiting home until winter break so I thought I would just hang out here." It's not like I had anything better to do. I was going to miss Mikey's cooking; every year he attempted to put together a meal. Once again, I found myself staring at the eggs and wondering how the heck I ended up gazing in that particular direction. I redirected my eyes back to Tom and witnessed a big smile plastered on his face. I was scared.

"Great! If you want, you can join me for the weekend, and eat thanksgiving with my family." Oh dear god, a whole weekend with the loudest people I knew. Could I survive? But would I fair well alone in the dorms, probably not.

"Sure, I guess I could come, if your family doesn't mind that is."

"Oh it's fine, my mom was the one that asked me if you wanted to join us. You'll get to meet my little sisters." Did I want to meet them? I guess I did. Well it was a month and a half away anyways so I had plenty of time to prepare.

End of Chapter 3

Wow, I can't believe how fast I'm at putting these chapters together. For the time being, I guess you can expect frequent updates.


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry this took me so long to get out. I got addicted to stealthy stories which competed with writing this fic for dealing with stress..hehe. Then I got into writing other one shots for the time being but I'm back  I'm not sure how many people are still with me at this point..hehe but for those who are, I hope you enjoy the next chapter even if I really don't think this fic is all that great. Part of me just wants to scrap this fic, what do you guys think? her voice echoes in the emptiness of the fic

Chapter 4: Halloween

It was the end of October and Halloween was coming up. For me, the day had given me an opportunity to interact with the general population in previous years. Splinter wasn't too keen on the idea of us trick or treating but we had snuck out a few times to score some candy. Mikey had even convinced all of us to infiltrate a Halloween party before we had become public. This year was different, since I had already somewhat integrated myself into the college microcosm. I had always gone, as myself, and now I would need a costume for the first time. I decided to excuse myself from the festivities for the year but Terry and Lucy wouldn't allow me the privilege. They were both hanging out in my dorm room when they brought up the issue.

"So, Don, what are you going to be for Halloween this year?" asked Terry. I blinked at him for asking such an abrupt question. I had been helping him with algebra, he was helping me with my accursed English Literature homework, and Lucy was working on Biology homework by herself.

"Oooohh..yeah, what kind of costume are you going to wear?" asked Lucy joining into the conversation. I rolled my eyes, gave my English book one last glare, and looked between the two crazy people I called my friends.

"Well, I wasn't planning on doing anything for Halloween." Both of them had these really shocked looks on their faces like I had just said something taboo. I placed my right hand over my forehead and looked down knowing full well where this conversation was going.

"I was hoping you'd dress up as the green giant or the Hulk." Terry snickered. I glanced over at him from under my hand.

"Just because you're green doesn't mean you have to do a green themed costume" stated Lucy. I could see the ideas running through her mind already.

"Okay, what do you have in mind?" I sighed, removed my hand from my face, and looked over at Lucy.

"You should come with me to the costume room for the theater. I can find you something to borrow."

"Okay, fine." I answered, not really in the mood to argue.

"Trust me, Don, we're going to have so much fun."

"Can I come along too? This is something I just gotta see." I returned my attention to my English book at this point, completely ignoring them.

The next day, right after chemistry class ended, Lucy was tagging along behind me.

"So you want to find a costume now?" I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around to face her.

"Sure, just as long as Terry isn't coming along."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm evil but I'm not that evil." I snickered.

"Thank goodness."

So we walked all the way across the campus from the chemistry building to the theater. She unlocked the door and turned on the lights to reveal a room full of costumes. I had no idea the school had so many.

"Do you think any of these would actually fit me, considering my abnormal measurements?"

"Oh please Don; you're different but not that different from everybody else. Besides, I'm not looking for a perfect fit, I can just fit it for you."

"You can do that?" I didn't know much about sewing.

"Of course, it's a piece of cake. I can't leave home without my sewing machine."

"Hey, how did you get access in here anyways?" I nonchalantly skimmed through some of the costumes, trying to look like I wasn't all that interested.

"Didn't you know that I'm one of the costume people now?"

"I didn't know you were really into that sort of thing, I thought you were a Biology major."

"That doesn't mean I can't have a hobby, right? It's not like I want to do it professionally or anything; I just like to sew." I guess that was no different than all the things I had picked up over the years. I still wasn't sure what to major in though. On the one hand I could try to challenge myself with a major I knew little about but on the other hand, down the road in the future, I might want a degree for a career. Too many things looked interesting.

"So then what got you into sewing then?"

"My mom, she taught me at a young age. Oh, here we go, how about a pirate?"

"Err…um."

"Yeah, you're right, not for you." Then I saw her just stop dead in her tracks and this evil smile emerged on her face. "How about this?" I blinked and glanced at it. It was a dark blue kimono and a gray hakama.

"You want me to be a samurai?" I asked. Well there were worse things I could have been such as a three musketeer. Why were all the other costumes that Lucy liked have to be frilly?

"Well, I think it would make you look very handsome." Handsome was a term that usually referred to attractive people, humans, not a turtle.

"Okay, fine. I'll wear it." I responded reluctantly to her evil plot to dress me up.

She made measurements over various areas on my body and we had parted ways from there. I proceeded to lunch and then English class.

She showed up the next day, at my dorm, costume in hand. It was just one of those rare days where I felt unmotivated to do anything. I was laying on the futon, flipping through channels, nearly falling asleep when she had knocked on my door. It was unlocked so I just yelled for her to come in. She had called me that morning to let me know she was showing up so I had been 98.54 sure it was Lucy. The door opened and sure enough, there was that blasted costume and the girl that was forcing me to participate.

"I finished making the adjustments so I want you to try it on now." I sat up from my position on the futon and fumbled for the remote. Where had that contraption gone? I just had it a minute ago. It had apparently fallen on the floor so I reached down to pick it up and promptly shut the TV off. I hoisted myself off the spot I had planned to spend the rest of the day on and looked over the now fitted costume as I took it from Lucy.

"And I suppose you want me to try it on now, huh?"

"Of course silly." Lucy turned around to give me privacy. Ever since I had begun attending this institution, I had become more cognizant of my body. I first put the kimono on and then tried to figure out how to tie the hakama on. To my relief, Lucy helped me with that part. She then dug around in a bag she has brought along and pulled out some socks. "I made these socks for you. I looked over the socks that had been altered to be two-toed, tabi." I sat down on my futon and slid the socks on as she pulled out shoes to go along with them.

"Well, how do I look?" I stood up from the futon as she eyed my costume with a grin.

"It really looks great on you, Don." My cheeks felt a little hot as if I was blushing or something. The costume was a little heavy and hot in the poorly circulated dorm room after all.

"Thanks. Is it alright if I take it off now?"

"What? You don't want to be dressed all up in Japanese clothing for the rest of the day?"

"Well, it's pretty hot in here for this." I walked over to the window and opened it a crack. A rush of cool autumn air blew into the room, along with the voices of people outside enjoying the crisp afternoon. Lucy helped me out of the costume or at least to untie the hakama and I left it hanging on my door, just waiting for Halloween.

"It sort of reminds me of my father." I commented about the apparel once I had gotten settled on the futon again with my athletic clothes that consisted of sweat pants and a t-shirt with the name of the school on it.

"Is your father Japanese then?" Lucy joined me on the futon.

"Well, sort of, I guess. He was born and raised there before moving to New York but I'm not sure if you would consider a rat to be of Japanese heritage."

"Don, sometimes you need to stop analyzing things so much. If he's from Japan then he's Japanese." I shrugged deciding not to argue with her plain and simple point.

"So you told me that your mother is Japanese and your father is American then?"

"Yes, that's correct. My father met my mother when he was working in Japan. He was eventually transferred back to America, in California when I started high school. Did you know that Lucille is actually my middle name?"

"Um, no, I had no idea."

"My first name was too hard for people to say so I started going by nickname, Lucy."

"So then what is your real name then?" I was really curious now.

"Mitsuyo."

"That's a nice name."

"On my first day my homeroom teacher couldn't pronounce it right and, after a day of hearing teachers and students alike try to pronounce it correctly, I gave up and told everybody to call me Lucy."

"Is it alright if I call you, Mitsuyo, then?"

"Nah, it would just feel weird. I've grown really accustomed to this name now."

Later that night, Tom had come back to the room and noticed my borrowed costume. He of course wanted me to try it on and I flatly refused. Luckily for me, Tom was way too tired from a long day of classes and football practice to try to convince me otherwise. We both decided to turn in early that night. He had fallen asleep in minutes and I for some reason, couldn't sleep. All I could do was stare up at the ceiling and listen to the wind softly blow into the room, the voices from down the hall of the building that was supposed to be quiet at this hour, and the snoring of my roommate. Finally I decided I wasn't going to be sleeping anytime soon tonight and stealthily climbed down from my bed. I grabbed my keys and left the room.

I went downstairs to the common area to see if there was anything going on; maybe I just didn't want to feel alone. Even with the small group of people that were oblivious to my presence because they were too busy chatting about classes or playing foosball, I still felt rather forlorn. I wondered if it was because I was homesick. Was it because I missed my family or because among humans, I felt so distant and different from everybody else? Why couldn't December get here faster?

I sat there, sulking, with my knees drawn up to my carapace, my arms wrapped around my knees, lost in my own little world. Out of the corner of my eye, someone had sat beside me. I glanced over and it was Tom.

"Hey! I was wondering what had happened to you." I squinted over at him, still unsure if I was hallucinating. Nothing woke up that guy once he was asleep so how could he have noticed I was gone. I looked back down at my knees and shrugged a little.

"I couldn't sleep and I didn't want to bother you so I came down here." Which was an obvious lie, considering the fact that I could have done a drum solo in that room and he would have slept through the whole thing.

"Do you miss home?" I looked up and turned my head slightly, towards him. He had this knowing smile on his face. I sighed.

"Yeah."

"It's okay. Everybody misses home during theirfirst year. It's not abnormal or anything."

"Really?" It wasn't just me feeling lost among another species?

"Yeah. All of my life, I've lived at home with my parents and my little sisters. I grew up outside of a small town where everybody knew everybody. It's just so weird to be living among all of these people I don't even know." I nodded and swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat. So these strange emotions running through my mind were normal after all.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one then." I managed a small smile. Tom returned my smile with a huge one that was typical to see on his face. He abruptly got up from his spot and offered a hand to me.

"Now, come on, we've got World History tomorrow and I need someone to wake me up." I took his hand and he pulled me up to a standing position. He proceeded to wrap an arm around my shoulder and guided me back to our room. Once I climbed back into bed, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Finally, the dreaded night had arrived. Halloween happened to have fallen on a Friday so of course there was a late night party to go to on campus. Well, to be correct, there were two parties. The first one was sponsored by the school and the second one was at one of the college houses. Lucy had arrived at my dorm at 8pm so I wouldn't conveniently forget all about it. She was dressed as a witch, which surprised me. I figured she would choose something a little more creative.

"A witch?"

"Yeah, don't you think it looks cute?" She twirled around, showing off her outfit. She had a short, layered skirt on, with black stockings. Her face was painted green riddled with sparkles. Her hat wasn't very tall and she had a black cat backpack. I wasn't sure if that meant she wanted to kill black cats or not. She was probably the cutest witch I had ever seen, which was very characteristic of her.

She helped me with my costume once again and Tom had returned to the room.

"Nice costume, Don!" He had that big grin on his face that in times like this, I truly disliked.

"Um…thanks…so what are you going as?"

"Oh, I'm actually not going to the party."

"What?" Lucy asked as if the world would come to an end just because someone didn't want to celebrate Halloween.

"I…er…have a date." Tom said shyly, which was clearly displayed on his face; it didn't take much for his pale skin to redden.

"Ohhh!" Lucy was extremely excited about that fact.

"I'm sure you'll be having more fun than us." I mumbled, wishing I had somewhere else to be.

"No, you have to come to this party with me, Don. Then maybe you can get yourself a date.

"Um…no thanks." Why was she torturing me like this? It was bad enough that I had to interact with a bunch of people I didn't even know; putting the pressure on to find a girlfriend was unnecessary.

"Well I hope you guys have fun." Tom winked and exited the room and going towards the shower. Damn him.

"Hurry up, or we're going to be late." Lucy tugged on my arm rather harshly and dragged me out of the safety of my room towards the party.

Terry was at the entrance of the building, to greet us. He was dressed as a pirate with an eye patch over one eye and a cheap looking parrot stuck to his left shoulder. I hoped that he'd be able to navigate the party okay without any depth perception.

"Hey, Don! Looking good." He whistled at me and I shuddered. Why must he always make a scene?

"I have to go find my boyfriend so you guys have fun and I'll just find you again."

Lucy excused herself from the group. I wished that she hadn't left me in the hands of Terry because then I could have easily escaped. The party was noisy and it was hard to hear any conversation. The room was dark with flashing lights illuminating all of the weirdly clad students; the music boomed at an annoyingly high volume. I really despised my costume at the moment; the air in the room was stagnant and incredibly hot. I decided to grab some punch, not really caring if Terry was still with me or not.

I reached my destination and swallowed some of the orange colored substance that the school had provided, hoping to hydrate myself. I glanced around in my immediate area and noticed that I had indeed lost Terry somewhere in the swarm of people.

I decided to venture outside, away from the crowd, where it was nice and breezy. I was greeted by blissful wind when I cracked the door open and slipped out. I glanced up at the stars in the sky as I sipped away at the drink still in my hand until there was no more left and I had sufficiently cooled down. Standing out here wasn't going to do me any good; I wanted to learn about humanity and grow as a being. I crunched the cup up in my hand, took a deep breath, and entered, leaving my safety zone once again.

End of Chapter 4

Sorry that took me so long to get done but I had a bit of writer's block and then got extremely busy trying to finish schoolwork for the semester. I hope to get another chapter done before I go on vacation a week from now. If not then I guess there won't be any updates until June.


	5. Chapter 5

First of all, I need to take the time to thank my reviewers:

Semi-Goth Turtle Titan: thanks! I'm glad you love the story and I hope you're still with me ;)

Hazlov2004: thanks!

Cascadia Science: I'm glad you like my fanfic and glad to see you're still reading it..yay!

Paulafromtwoson: hugz you're so sweet to review my fics! I'm so glad you think I've developed my characters well; I was so worried about them being underdeveloped. I'm also glad you think the events sound realistic too  thanks!

TigerChickTigriss: I will continue to keep the chapters coming for now..hehe.

Also I'd like to thank my beta reader, Lycanth! Thanks for always being there to read my fics for me  hugz

Thanks you guys, I'll try to continue writing for as long as I can since I know there are a few out there that read this fic. As long as this is fun for me, I will continue even if I feel like this whole fic is a train wreck.

Chapter 5: Party!

I was greeted by Terry when Ihad once again entered the inferno, I mean party.

"I was wondering where you ran off too." He wore this fake, hurt look on his face.

"Sorry, I needed to get some air; it's too hot in this place." He patted the back of my shell and spoke close to my ear.

"Yeah, I know, I'm just too stunning for you." I gave him a weird look and almost thought about trying to escape; he just smirked and winked at me. "Don, you just need to lighten up and have a little fun, is all. Come on, Lucy located her boyfriend and found us a spot to sit." He guided me to the table where Lucy could be found laughing at something the 'whomever this guy's name was' said and smiled when I had approached the table.

"Yay! There you are Don!" She gestured at a seat in close proximity and I took it as an invitation to sit down beside her. Terry then proceeded to sit on the other side of me.

"So, this your new boyfriend?" I asked loudly enough in her ear to hear me but not be heard by anybody else. She nodded.

"Don, this is Shawn. Shawn, this is my friend Don." I offered my hand to him. How quaint, our names rhymed.

"Nice to meet ya, Don." He said with a grin on his face. In fact, his whole face just seemed too expressive.

"You too." I wasn't sure if I really needed to make an effort to remember the guy's name since Lucy had been dating so many men but perhaps she'd find Mr. Right eventually. There wasn't much conversation to be had at this point because of how loud the surrounding environment was. Lucy and Shawn had gone out on the dance floor a few times. Terry had offered to dance with me, which of course I had flatly refused. Once Lucy and Shawn returned, it was decided that we would head on over to the other party. I was relieved to once again be immersed with the fresh, autumn air as we stepped outside and proceeded to trek across the campus to said party.

Now that we were outside I was able to get a better glimpse of Shawn's costume as we passed under the night lights that illuminated the campus semi-safely. The state of his apparel suggested that he was supposed to be a hobo. He was wearing ragged clothes on that looked as if he had thrown together his costume at the last minute in order to impress Lucy. How come she let him get away with that getup while I had to go to all the trouble to borrow a nice costume?

"So where is this party?" Shawn asked, directing his question at Lucy.

"It's at Stacy's house." The name sounded vaguely familiar to me but I couldn't put a face to the name.

The party was located in one of the houses located across the street from the campus. It was a small residence, stuffed with more people than you'd think it could ever hold; it was worse than the on campus party. We squeezed right in and found a space that was mostly occupied with air so we moved over to that spot to congregate.

"You want me to get you something to drink?" Shawn asked Lucy once we had claimed our little corner.

"Yes, please." She pecked him on his cheek and he took his leave. Terry smiled and whispered into my ear.

"Honey, would you like me to get you something to drink? You look so thirsty." I rolled my eyes and shoved him a little.

"Yes, as long as you don't call me honey." Terry followed in Shawn's footsteps leaving Lucy and I alone.

"So what do you think of Shawn?" she asked. I didn't really know the guy except for our initial introduction so I had no idea what kind of person he was.

"He seems nice, I guess."

"You guess?"

I sighed and frowned, feeling incredibly uncomfortable having this conversation with her.

"Well I just met the guy. What am I supposed to think?"

"Hmmm...I guess you're right." She sounded a bit unsure and was lacking the usual confidence that I had grown so accustomed to.

"Don't you like him?"

Her face briefly displayed a look of shock before going back on guard.

"He's a nice guy but I don't feel anything more for him."

"You just started dating him so how can you expect instant feelings of love?" I wasn't really one to believe in love at first sight, my mind was just way too logical.

"So you think I should continue dating him then?"

"How should I know?" I snapped back at her and took a deep breath realizing how harsh I may have sounded. Why was I feeling so emotional over this little issue all of a sudden? It must have been the combined stresses from the heat as a result of wearing this costume and being confined to such a small space. "Maybe you should try dating someone for a longer time before deciding to break up with them so quickly." I commented on her overly exciting love life. Before Lucy had a chance to respond, Shawn had returned with their drinks with Terry in tow with ours.

He handed the drink to me and I took a sip. It tasted a little peculiar, which made me wonder if the punch had been contaminated with alcohol. My other three companions either didn't notice or just didn't care. I held onto the tainted drink since I had nowhere to place it or dispose of it. I felt a little awkward around Lucy after our poignant conversation and would rather have not spoken with her for the rest of the night. I guess you could say I'm a coward but I wasn't really in the mood to deal with much of anything. The heat of the costume and the close proximity to other people had put me in a difficult mood. The only problem was that I had no idea where the bathroom was in this place. It was difficult to figure out since the room was poorly lit for the effect of Halloween and there were so many bodies in the way of my line of vision, meaning I had ask the one person I wanted to avoid for directions.

"Hey, do you know where the bathroom is in this place?"

"It's down that hall, make a turn to the right and it should be on your left."

"Thanks." I attempted to make my way to the bathroom where I would probably have to wait in line for a while. Luckily I didn't have to wait too long, and I was finally able to relieve myself after I had figured out how to undo the blasted hakama straps. As I exited the bathroom, I was stopped by a tall, beefy guy that looked like he might be a football player and was wearing a smirk on his face as if saying he was better than me.

"Hey freak!" He yelled loud enough for me and people in the immediate vicinity to hear.

"Um…excuse me, I need to get back to my friends." I really wanted to avoid conflict even if he was acting quite rude towards me.

"Hold it! I didn't say you could pass, green boy!" He shoved me hard or at least he made a sad attempt to. It's a good thing I had been training in the martial arts my whole life. Instinct had implanted in my mind the correct stance for holding my ground, which seemed to agitate the guy even more. Why was it that larger people liked to pick on those smaller than them?

"My name is Don." I spat out before pushing my way through. There was a faint smell of alcohol on his breath, which was probably influencing his brash attitude and enhancing his lovely personality. What the hell did I do to piss him off anyway?!

There were two other idiots waiting to block me after I had easily passed by the first jerk. Didn't they understand how pointless and stupid it was to initiate a fight? It took a few seconds for the original instigator to realize that I had already slipped by him easily.

All of a sudden the room became even more loud and rambunctious. The assholes that had pathetically attacked me had lost interest, focusing their attention on whatever it was that got everybody else totally out of control. I tried my best to swim my way through crowd and back to my friends. They looked anxious but slightly relieved when I had returned to their side.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"It looks like the cops arrived; we've gotta get out of here." Terry yelled loudly in my ear. Lucy and Shawn had already pried open a window. Shawn was outside helping Lucy climb out. Once she had been secured, Terry climbed out of the window and I followed. Once I had made it outside we made a run for it. The night sky was cloudy and flurries were illuminated by the campus lights. I saw the flashing lights of the patrol car in the corner of my eye. We ran across the street and back to the campus. I still had a lot of energy for running but my friends on the other hand weren't fairing as well. Once they felt like we were far enough away they stopped dead in their tracks to catch their breath.

Shawn took Lucy's hand as a gesture to guide her back to her dorm. I could see tears glistening in her eyes. Why was she crying? Before I could ponder that any further, Terry tugged on my sleeve.

"Come on, Don, we gotta get back to the dorms." I drew my attention to Terry's general direction and decided it was best that we get back. I turned my head one last time as I watched Shawn and Lucy walk towards her dorm building.

Terry and I strolled in complete silence mainly because I was feeling rather sleepy at this point and wasn't in the mood to converse. Even though the evening had ended on an undesirable note, I was grateful that we were able to leave the party early. I gave Terry a sleepy wave and we went our separate ways.

Tom was in the room when I returned. He appeared to be all ready for bed, which was a first. I couldn't wait to get out of the irritating costume and slip into bed.

"So, how was the party?" Tom asked from his bed. He obviously wasn't asleep yet. Was he waiting for me? I was tiredly attempting to untie the hakama not really paying attention to the other occupant in the room. A few seconds later, my brain had finally clicked and the question replayed through my mind.

"It was alright, I guess. "I shrugged.

"Okay?" Success! The hakama was off and now I was trying to locate a pair of PJ bottoms.

"It was really hot, crowded, and the house party got interrupted by the police. Apparently there were some under aged people drinking there." I found the blue, patterned flannel pants and pulled them up to my waist.

"Sounds more exciting than my night." I loosened the kimono and was in the process of taking it off.

"I think I would have rather had a boring evening than dealing with all the drama tonight."

"Drama?"

"Ah...er…never mind." I pulled a shirt over my head. I looked in his direction. "How was your date then?" I was desperately attempting to change the subject.

"She was nice but she talked way too much." I gave him a curious look before scooping the pieces of the costume off of the floor. Tom would actually find someone too talkative? He leaned over the edge of his loft as if to get a better view, ashe tended to do when he was deep in conversation.

"Talkative how?" I proceeded to hang the costume that I would hopefully never see again.

"Well maybe it wasn't so much the talking that bothered me, it's what she talked about."

"What she talked about?" I flipped the lights off and hoisted myself into my bed.

"Yeah, it was me, me, me." I crawled under my covers.

"Ah, I understand."

"Hey, you never told me about what happened tonight." Oh great, he was too smart for his own good. He had repositioned himself on his back and was talking to the ceiling.

"Um...er...is it alright if we go to bed now. I'm rather tired."

"If that's what you want, little buddy." Little buddy? Okay, I was shorter than a lot of humans my age or at least in my age group but why did he have to give me such a derogatory nickname?

"Goodnight." I responded and shut my eyes. I lost all consciousness at that point.

I woke up to the sound of birds chirping loudly like they tended to do around sunrise. At first I thought it was a weekday and I would have to get up for the ever-invigorating World History class but then all the events of the previous night rushed through my mind. Even though I didn't have a hangover, it sure felt like it with all the feelings of regret I had fostered. Tom was fortunately still asleep in the loft next to me. Lying around wasn't going to help me feel any better so I decided to get up and go for a morning run. I had recently begun this morning routine to keep somewhat in shape. I found a pair of sweat pants and changed into those. Then I slipped on my running shoes, grabbed my keys, and exited the room.

After an hour or so of running around the campus and the surrounding neighborhood I returned to the dorms. I had left my mind blank during the length of the run so I couldn't remember much about it; my body was running on autopilot. When I returned, Tom was still asleep; it was still early in the morning and the building was quiet. I laid down on the futon on my side and flicked on the TV. I slowly slipped into unconsciousness despite my fight to stay awake. I think I was watching the discovery channel or something but when I had awoken the TV was off. The sun found itself in my eyes. I blinked a few times to clear my initial blurry vision, trying to figure out where I was and the current time.

"So you finally woke up?"

I rubbed my eyes, which were feeling dry from my morning nap.

"What time is it?" I asked still trying to orient myself with my surroundings.

"It's 9am."

"Ah." I sat up and stretched.

"Did something happen at the party?"

"Huh?" Was all that would come out of my mouth. Where did this topic come from all of a sudden? "I guess it got busted." I just sat there not really knowing what else to do.

"Is that all?"

"Does it really matter?" I sighed. It was just something I was going to have to face some time. Not everybody was going to welcome me with open arms. Some would stare, some would talk about me as if I wasn't there, and some would try to pick on me in an attempt to better their own self-esteem. Even though I understood these facts, it still wasn't easy to deal with.

"So you don't want to talk about it then?"

"No, not really. It's stupid really. I'll get over it."

Terry ended up showing up later while I was keeping my mind off the confusing weekend by working on one of my favorite subjects: English.

"Hey Don!" He had come up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder. Tom had let him in before making a trip to the laundry room. Lately, he had been keeping up with his heap of clothes so it wasn't too big of a pile. I wonder if he had noticed all the dirty looks I had given the clothes.

"Hi." I wasn't really in the mood to talk and so I proceeded to ignore him. Why was it when my mind was in turmoil and I just wanted everybody to leave me alone, they wouldn't.

"I saw those guys trying to pick a fight with you."

"What?"

"I know you heard me the first time."

"Yeah but it was no big deal so you needn't worry about it." I heard the door close. Oh great, here was my nosey roommate ready to butt in as well.

"Someone tried to pick a fight with you?" I sighed and rolled my eyes still keeping my back to the both of them.

"Yes." I simply stated attempting to terminate the conversation.

"So that's what you're upset about."

"Is it really? Or is it something else Don?" I had to cringe. Was there something else that was really bothering me? I shoved those thoughts to the back of my mind.

"No, I wasn't happy about a bunch of football players trying to shove me around. Okay? Everybody content now?"

"Football players? Shoot. I wonder if it was Randy and his friends. They act like they're better than everybody else in the team."

"I don't know" I shrugged.

"Don't worry about what those buttheads said to you; they're like that to everybody." Tom said trying to reassure me. Now I was feeling like a total jerk, after all, my friends were only looking out for me. I swiveled my chair around and looked at the both of them.

"I'm sorry, I know you guys are just trying to help. I shouldn't have snapped at you." I sighed. I felt just awful. I wasn't acting like myself at all.

"It's okay Don!" Tom said a little too loudly for my taste but I was glad he didn't take anything personally.

"Yeah, you're always a jerk Don, so we're used to it." Terry smirked. I groaned.

"Come on, you want to go grab a bite to eat for lunch?"

"Sure." Even if things weren't perfect, at least my friends were there to get in my business and not let me fall.

End of Chapter 5

Looks embarrassingly at the chapter above yeah, I'm not sure if I liked that chapter shrugs. Well I'm back from vacation now. I traveled through many states (South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington) and got a little writing done here and there..hehe. Anyways, I hope to update a lot sooner next time so stayed tuned! (if being out of town next weekend doesn't get in the way)


	6. Chapter 6

Well thanks for responding, Semi-Goth Turtle Titan, and I'm glad to see you're still reading this disaster..er I mean fic. That's all I have to say um I hope you enjoy this chapter?

Chapter 6: Belonging

Since Halloween the time just flew mainly because I was finding myself busier and busier with homework, school projects, and such. Before I even knew it Thanksgiving break had arrived and I found myself stuck in a car with Tom for a few hours. The scenery wasn't all very exciting, nothing but snow-covered fields with brown grass peeking out here and there. It was the first time I had really seen the scenery in this part of the country since I had started school. I could only see the crops from the aerial view that the plane ride provided me back in late August.

Tom did most of the talking for this trip. I found myself not really caring what he had to say. There were too many other confusing thoughts running through my head instead. I had run into those rude guys again on campus one day. Of course I didn't inform any of my other friends about this matter. It would be silly to worry them about something so insignificant.

Lucy surprisingly was still dating Shawn and I didn't see much of her since Halloween except for in Chemistry class. I guess having a boyfriend kept her busy or maybe she was still mad at me; it was probably a little bit of both. It felt strange not being dragged to this place or that place with her.

I knew I was in trouble when Tom had paused in his prattle. My head had been turned away and my head rested on my hand. My elbow was lazily leaning onto the door of the car. My gaze was directed at the monotonous landscape but I wasn't really paying attention to that much like I had totally ignored Tom until the silence.

I moved my head to look in his general direction and noticed that he was giving me a worried glance. Oh great! So just because I found him to be utterly boring, now he was thinking more of it. I smiled sheepishly at him.

"I guess car rides make me sleepy." He laughed in response to my relief.

"It's okay if you want to sleep, little buddy, we still got an hour before we make it there." I scrunched up my face a little in distaste at that nickname. He certainly liked to use it more and more frequently; somehow I think the reason why he utilized it was because he knew it annoyed me. I turned away from him in a sulking manner and decided that maybe a nap would be a good idea after all. I could hardly sleep the night before not because I was elated about this trip but because I was really nervous. I briefly met his parents before but staying the weekend with them; I wasn't sure if they would be sick of me. I also was worried about how his little sisters would react to a giant turtle.

"Wake me when we get there." Of course that statement was a given; it's not like he was going to leave me in the car until I froze to death hours later. I shut my eyes and easily fell asleep.

I awoke when I suddenly felt the car decelerate and turn onto a bumpy, dirt road. I blinked a few times and squinted my eyes until I got used to the bright light reflected off of the piles of snow that lined the side of the road; white doesn't absorb any light, making it difficult to adjust.

"We're almost there."

Moments later Tom pulled the car into a driveway. There was a big farmhouse and a slightly worn out barn. Two girls were waiting on the deck with no coats on. I wondered why they weren't freezing to death. Winters were harsh during my younger years and I spent a lot of time sleeping during the winter to deal with the colder temperatures until I had eventually improved the climate situation in our habitat below the streets. My brothers and I are probably a mix between endotherms and ectotherms. My internal body temperature does not have to be stable like a human's but I can use some of the same means as humans to produce heat or cool off such as shivering and sweating. The advantage that I have from my mutation is that I don't need to use up as much energy to keep a steady temperature since my internal temperature range is broader.

I tried to open the passenger door but it wouldn't budge. Then I realized that the door was still locked; I can be such an idiot when I'm tired. Tom was already up on the porch giving each of his sisters a hug. I got out of the car and he called over to me.

"Come on Don. What's taking so long?"

"Coming." I made my way through the snow; the air was frigid enough that I could see my breath. The two girls that looked exactly alike just looked up at me with wonder and then they smiled at the same time, which I thought was a little creepy. I waved weakly at them in response.

"Now come on, don't be shy. Say hi to Don."

"Hi, I'm Megan."

"I'm Sara"

I cracked a smile and held my hand out.

"I'm Don." I wasn't quite expecting them to yank on my hand and drag me into the house. The door actually led into an entry room and I imitated the twins by slipping my shoes off before going through another door into the kitchen, so we must have been in the back of the house. Tom followed sluggishly behind us. I was pulled into the den where Tom's other little sister was. She was sitting in a chair reading a book and just looked up at me, curiously stared at me for a few seconds, and got up from her spot placing the book on the chair behind her.

"So you're Don then?"

"Yes, that would be me." Yeah, what other turtle could I possibly be? Oh that's right, I do have three other brothers.

"I'm Katie, nice to meet you." She reached out her hand and I shook it.

Tom got me away from the two younger ones and took me downstairs to show me his basement bedroom. Great, right back underground again; it wasn't very warm down there either. I was pleased to later find out that I would be staying upstairs in the guest bedroom in a much warmer spot.

His room was very plain with a couple of trophies from high school. I sat down on his bed, wondering what my brothers were up to this very moment.

"So how old are your sisters then?" My eyes scanned around the room, looking at photos and anything else of interest.

"Katie is sixteen and the twins are eight. You're probably wondering why there's a big gap between Katie and the twins."

"No, not really." Like telling him that would dissuade him from continuing with the story. He laughed.

"Heh, just like you to say so Don." I gave him an irritated look. So what if I didn't care, it wasn't really my business anyways.

"The twins were a mistake. In other words, my parents just wanted two children and then surprise: twins."

"I certainly hope you didn't tell them that." I answered dryly. Okay, so maybe that was a little pessimistic of me to say; my mutation was a total accident, which left me pondering my very existence on a regular basis.

"Nah, they're not old enough to know about these sorts of things but we're glad they were born." What? About sex? I stumbled across that topic in my youth. It didn't make Splinter too happy when he realized I knew more than him on the matter. I gave him a quizzical look.

"I'm a little confused, why is it so hard for humans to discuss sex?" I truly was confused. There was so much sex and violence on TV; I couldn't understand how parents could possibly hide it from their children. Perhaps it was because I didn't have a normal childhood.

"Oh, well they know a ltiny bit about sex but they definitely don't know they're a mistake." I nodded and realized how strange I may have worded things. Why did I continue to refer to humans as humans as if I wanted to keep myself segregated? Tom glanced at the time

"Oh, I bet my folks'll be home any minute now." So we decided to go back upstairs in order to greet them whenever it was that they decide to grace us with their presence. We didn't have to wait though because they were already home.

"Oh hey Don and Tom." His mother smiled.

"Hi, Mrs. Johnson." I greeted her, hoping I remembered the last name correctly.

"Don, you can just call me Mary if you'd like." She was in the kitchen, getting supper ready and came up to me to give me a hug. I was a bit surprised at first but then again it reminded me of April and how she tended to give us hugs all of the time; it felt sort of nice.

"Oh okay… Mary." I didn't really know what else to say after such a nice gesture of affection.

"And you can call me Bill." Bill was cutting up some carrots over by the kitchen sink. I prayed that he would not also give me a hug but unfortunately whatever gods existed or perhaps the fates, weren't too kind to me. He grabbed me and gave me I guess what you could call a manly hug. I can't imagine Splinter hugging me like that at my age; I think I would die of embarrassment.

"Um okay Bill…" I was ready to make a retreat. I wonder if Tom would mind me stealing his car but then again I was asleep for half the trip, meaning I would have no idea how to get back to the school.

"Is there anything I can do to help, Mary?" I asked politely. I was used to one of us brothers cooking rather than the parents; Splinter hardly ever made food for us anymore.

"Oh that's very sweet of you, but you really don't have to; you're a guest."

"I don't mind."

"Well, you and Tom could set the table for supper. Bill and I pretty much have things under control."

"Sure." Tom showed me where things were and we worked together in setting up all of the spots for the family to sit. They seemed to have an apple theme going with this setup. Soon after, the family had congregated in the dining room to eat supper. There was roast beef, carrot sticks, homemade bread from the bread maker, and some chocolate cake. Normal meals at my home were definitely not this elaborate, made me wonder what was in store for Thanksgiving tomorrow. First they paused to say a prayer and I patiently stood with them in silence. Christianity was still a novel thing for me and the deep belief in one god intrigued me. For some reason the thought of believing or having faith in something felt safe but sadly I was incapable of blindly trusting in anything. My mind was way to critical and ever cautious of everything; it was the only way to survive in this world.

I listened in on them talk about normal everyday life type of things such as work and school; so this is what an ordinary human family is like. After supper, I was stuffed, and Mary showed me to the guest bedroom. I unpacked while Tom sat on the bed, chattering away about something; I think it was about all the things he had planned for us to do this weekend.

He was interrupted by a knock on the door and it was the twins.

"Don!" One of them said; I hadn't quite figured out which one was which.

"Come see our room." Oh boy, a room; how exciting, forgive me if I don't feel as overjoyed about this.

"Er um okay." Off they sucked me into the abyss without a second thought. It was a very girly looking room with Barbie dolls spread all over the floor. One of them shoved the male doll into my face; now what was his name again, Ken?

"You can be Ken." I blinked and looked at the plastic doll in my hands. He had blond, painted on hair.

"Hey Barbie, I'm taking Ken to the dance tonight."

"No you can't, I am because I'm Barbie." So they both are Barbie?

"I thought your names were Sara and Megan."

"No silly, her name is Barbie."

"Okay..." I held up the ken doll; I could not believe I was doing this. "I want to take Barbie and Barbie to the dance."

"No need to fear, Ken is here." Tom had followed us in and picked up his own Ken doll.

"Sister, it looks like there are two Kens now." The Barbie dolls jumped up and down excited about the dance, I guess.

"Oh dance with me Ken." They took turns dancing with my Ken doll. What? One Ken wasn't good enough? There was some inner turmoil in the Barbie world when the Barbies couldn't be happy with their own Ken and even another doll came and tried to steal both Kens away. This torture went on until Mary came in to tell the girls it was time for bed. Of course Ken needed a good night kiss from Barbie before bed.

"I hope my sisters weren't too much trouble for you." I wasn't used to playing with girls so it was interesting if not tormenting. It was still too early for Tom and I to call it a night so we went downstairs to the den to watch some TV. Katie was there, reading a book again.

"Hey sis, we're going to watch some TV if you don't mind that is."

"Oh, not at all." After flipping through a few channels, we found that there really wasn't much to watch, even with satellite TV.

"So Don, what made you decide to go to college?" Katie had placed the book down and had her full attention on me.

"Well..I'm not really sure." I looked down at the carpet and traced my fingers along the pattern. "I guess I wanted to try something different."

"So how old are you? Are you the same age as my brother?" I stared at her wondering why she was asking me that. She blushed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be snoopy or anything but I can't tell how old you are." Hmm, I never really thought of it like that. I always had a hard time figuring out how old humans were since I didn't know very many until now but I never thought my age would be so ambiguous to the outsider. I smiled, hoping to assuage her embarrassment.

"It's not a stupid question really, I'm only sixteen years old."

"What? Really? How come you never told me?" Tom asked, dumbfounded. I shrugged.

"It never came up." Well if you think about it, it's true; people just assume you're the same age and never even ask you.

"So then you must be really smart to be able to attend college at my age especially since you never attended school before." I scratched the back of my head, unsure about that.

"I don't really know; it's not like I'm that much younger than the average college student."

"Still Don, I think it's pretty amazing how much younger you are than me. So when is your birthday, anyways."

"Um er birthday..I don't actually know."

"What?" Both siblings said this at the same time like it was the most shocking thing ever.

"Does it really matter anyways?"

"Don't you celebrate birthdays and stuff?" Tom asked me still stunned over the whole thing. Well sure we did, Splinter would have a little party for us once a year but it wasn't much; we each got a little gift he was able to scour up.

"Sort of I guess." I remember when April made such a big deal about it and we still didn't understand the concept. Did people enjoy celebrating just for the sake of a party or because it made them feel like they had a place to which they inhered this world? It's hard for me to comprehend human beings uncertainty in belonging since to me it appeared they had a place; they fit in much more so than I did anyways.

"Wow, I still can't believe you're the same age as me, Don. You're so mature." Was I? Well maybe compared to Mike or Raph. I had become aware how carefree my peers were but I figured that came with not having to deal with the violent troubles of the world. Why was it that Splinter trained us for vengeance? What was I supposed to do with my life now that the threat was over? I frowned.

"I really have no idea." And yet was I mature? I had so many things in this life to learn and there were so many things I was unaware of. Learning how to socialize and be a part of the human world would hopefully help me blossom into a being of better understanding of myself and how I relate to the world. Tom grabbed my head much to my discontent and gave me a noogie.

"Nah, this guy is not mature at all."

"Hey!" I laughed and out of the corner of my eye Katie looked amused.

"So maybe we should watch a movie." Tom stopped, along with my struggling.

"Uh sure." I replied and she smiled down at me from my awkward position on the floor. Tom released me.

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea." He left me alone to rummage through their assortment of DVDs and the two of them decided on one of those computer-animated movies. Afterwards I went up to my room to get some much needed sleep.

End of Chapter 6

I attempted to put together a theory on whether the turtles are warm-blooded (endotherm) or cold-blooded (ectotherm). After a bit of discussion with my friend, Jenn, we thought they were a mixture of both and it sounds about right to me anyways.

Er yeah, I guess it took me a lot longer than I thought to update. I went through some writer's block and then I got really busy working in the lab over the summer. I'll try to update sooner next time but I can't really promise anything..hehe since classes start in one week. The good news is that I've already started working on the next chapter so if I continue to have the time and inspiration; it shouldn't take too long to finish. Again I feel embarrassed about the chapter. So if you liked it; it would certainly help my confidence to let me know and if you didn't like it well I would probably agree with you on that..hehe. Until next time…


	7. Chapter 7

Wow, chapter 6 got the most reviews for any chapter. Thank you very much! I really appreciate the feedback so please continue telling me what you think. And of course if you have questions I can answer them in the next chapter (without spoiling the plot of course). So on to the feedback to my reviewers:

Hellscream59: Couples..hmm..I think I'm going to keep that a secret for now. ;)

J'oublie m'appelle: hehe..I'm happy you like the way I've portrayed Don's personality and glad you like his inner thoughts. It's fun trying to figure out how Don's mind works so it's great to know that you enjoy what I've done with him so far.

FF Demon: I figured since the turtles grew up isolated and not really knowing a lot of humans; Don would have some confusion about normal everyday human life.

Ladyofthebookworms: Yay..glad you agree with me on the theory.

Sinead Rivka: Thanks! Oh no! Not the pairings question again. gasp Yeah, sorry I'm just going to keep people wondering for awhile. It wouldn't be any fun if I spoiled it. ;)

Hannah: I will continue as long as I can.

MusaEncantix: Thanks for the encouragement!

Thanks to my beta reader for this chapter: Mica

Time for my usual excuses: I've just been really busy with school lately. Trying to finish a masters of science degree is a lot of work. So anyways, sorry for the delay and please enjoy the chapter! Just in time for the New Year…sort of. Hope everybody had a good Christmas and a happy new year!

Chapter 7: Thanksgiving

I never thought it would be peculiar to sleep alone. So many times, I wished I had a room to myself at the dorms or no nosey, rambunctious brothers to bother me whenever they pleased. I found moments in my life where I would rub my head in an attempt to calm the chaotic elements of my life. I never took silence for granted, whenever it occurred, it was a blessing.

So why now, when I lied awake, alone in the room, was I feeling depressed about the whole thing? Once I had turned the lights off, the room was very dark for my eyes at first. It was a little disconcerting to be in unfamiliar settings. Slowly, I gained more vision of the room around me; the moonlight shone dully through the thin curtains. There wasn't a sound to be heard in the residence except for the creaking complaints the house made when the wind chose to harshly blow against it.

I didn't realize how dependent I was on Tom's snoring to fall asleep until now. I lazed about for who knows how long until I finally lost consciousness. There were no memories of the dreams I had that night but I woke up absolutely confused. I panicked for a minute before I remembered my current situation. I was really glad it was morning and I could leave this imprisonment of solitude.

----

When I walked out into the hall, the smell of food was in the air and I was overcome by one of those sickeningly sweet warm feelings of knowing that I was no longer alone.

Giggling could be heard down the hall, meaning that Megan and Sara were awake and at play. Maybe if I snuck past their door, ever so quietly, they won't even notice me. Too bad, unbeknownst to me, there happened to be a creak in the floor right in the vicinity of their doorway. My mind quickly made note of that for future reference but unfortunately this vital piece of information was not going to help me this time.

The door that had been ajar and had done a sufficient job of protecting me had quickly been opened all the way to reveal the two young girls as they smiled delightfully at me.

"Don!"

"Um morning?" I muttered almost afraid what was next. I was a bit tired from my sad attempts to fall asleep last night. Now here's the theory: If I keep walking, they will mind their own business and I will be free. The test for that theory was a complete failure. The good news is that they didn't drag me into the abyss; instead they proceeded to follow me down the stairs.

Not surprising, Tom was not up yet or at least that's what I assumed when he was nowhere to be found. I guess 8 am was just way too early in the morning to be up quite yet. Mary and Bill were in the kitchen; Bill had his head down in the oven, probably looking at the turkey. Mary appeared to be making dinner rolls on the counter; she was in the process of rolling dough. The aroma in the air was pleasing to the senses. The strange thing that I had learned recently was that people in the Midwest preferred to have their big meals during the noon hour and lunch was called dinner. In contrast, I was used to have dinner at suppertime and having a small meal at lunch. This of course was not always the case but when it pertained to the Thanksgiving meal; it would be at the noon hour, thus the reason why the meal was already in preparation this early in the morning.

"Good morning Don." Do you think she could have said that any more brightly?

"Ah, good morning, Mary. Everything smells so good." She smiled at me.

"Thank you, Don." The thought lingered in my mind that perhaps I should aid them.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No, Don, really it's okay. You're a guest here so just enjoy your stay here." Wow, I never realized how I detested feeling useless and maybe Mary could tell by the slight disappointment in my voice.

"Okay, I understand." She gave me a kind smile, probably the type of smile a mother would give to her son. I wouldn't know since I've never had a mother.

"But, you can see if that son of mine is up yet." I smiled back at her. I guess I've been designated as his official alarm clock.

"Sure." I felt a pair of hands grab each of mine and I looked down at the two girls by my side. For a blissful moment there, I had forgotten about my stalkers and they were pulling on me.

"Girls, leave Don alone and get dressed."

"Aww..but…" One of them let go, looking disappointed.

"No buts, Meg." She was pouting quite cutely but I was not going to succumb to it and apparently neither was her mother. I gave my heroine a grateful smile as I slipped out of the kitchen, free from my shackles and made my descent into the bowels of the basement. I could hear the sounds of a dryer as I passed by the laundry room and knocked loudly on Tom's bedroom door. I paused, listening for any movement in the room but there was none to be heard. Carefully, I opened the chamber door and glanced inside the dark room. I reached to one side of the door, hoping there would be a light switch there and it was easy to stumble upon. The room was now illuminated and I could see a lump under the sheets…ah my target. He was oblivious to my presence or even of the real world. I shook him, hoping to get some sort of reaction but there was none so I shook him harder and I was rewarded with a mumble from beneath the warm sanctuary.

"Tom…it's time to get up. I know we don't have class today but your mother requested I wake you."

"Wha time ish it?" He asked, slightly slurring his words in his sleepy state.

"It's nearly eight."

"Why so early?" I shrugged not really understanding how he could think it was such an early time.

"Well you have to get up some time today." I shook him once again to emphasize my point.

"Dooon." He moaned and all I could do was sigh. Tom had such a slack attitude on the whole affair. Growing up with Splinter, I knew that if I wasn't out of bed on time, I would be in a huge quantity of trouble. There were many nights that I wouldn't even go to bed at all either because of night patrol or simply because I had gotten too caught up in my work. Time was precious and I valued every second of it; the need for sleep was one of those necessary evils I loathed at times. Of course now I indulged in the inactivity much more now since all of my projects were left at home. I wanted to try my best to keep a low profile and fit in as much as possible. Plus, research shows that getting adequate amounts of sleep improves memory and cognitive function meaning it would be best for me to get my eight hours of sleep in order to function at optimal levels.

Just when I thought I would need to douse him with water like I had done a few times back at the dorms, he lifted his head and squinted at me. The hair atop is head was a total disaster and it made me wonder how humans could even stand to have hair; it looks itchy and a lot of work to maintain. He glanced around his surroundings, appearing to be slightly confused and yawned before a look of understanding suddenly made its presence upon his face.

"Thanksgiving?"

"Yeah" I responded, hoping he could get it together.

"Shower." He simply said; his brain must not have been processing very fast quite yet.

"Okay, I'll be upstairs." I left him be and made my way back upstairs, possibly into the danger zone; my guard was up at least. When I reached the top of the stairs, I walked through the den and felt a presence behind me. Great, here we go again. I turned around to find Katie there. I breathed a sigh of relief to myself; no little sisters were in sight.

"Hey." I waved shyly at her. She nodded and smiled slightly, adjusting her glasses. I had a hard time understanding how she could be related to loud, boisterous Tom and all too friendly Megan and Sarah.

"Did you have a good sleep?"

"Uh…yes." No need to get into the specifics of my problems falling asleep. She sat down in a chair and I did the same not really knowing what else to do with myself.

Megan and Sarah chose that moment to burst in and ruin the quiet mood.

"Don!" They both said at exactly the same time. They ran over to me and both piled onto the chair; squashing me and I began to understand the life of a chair.

Katie did nothing to help me at first, just sat there giggling at me. I gave her this helpless look and I think she finally took pity on me.

"Meg! Sarah!" she said in stern, older sister type of manner, "It's not nice to get on Don like that, give him room to breathe." Miraculously they listened and pouted; trying to make everybody feel sorry for them and climbed off the chair and I was finally free from the incarceration. I gave Katie a grateful smile and she then suggested we work on a puzzle together. It was one of those 1,000 piece puzzles that could never get completed around four brothers. Raph never wanted anything to do with it and eventually would _accidentally_ knock it over and it would be the end of it. Mike would be interested in it for only about an hour and get distracted, finding something else more interesting. Leo actually enjoyed working on puzzles but then he would feel guilt for spending so much time on a leisurely project when he should be training and politely excuse himself. I liked doing these sorts of puzzles in my younger years but as I got older, they were way too easy to me. For some reason now, it was a bit enjoyable.

"Don! Look I got it!" Meg felt the need to tell me every time she got one to fit.

"Oh wow, that's great." I smiled reassuringly.

"I can make it fit too." Sara responded pouting and I also smiled at her.

"You're doing a good job too." She grinned at me, a front tooth was missing; kids loved even the smallest compliments and loved the attention for every little accomplishment. I could remember a time when I tell Splinter about everything and it would make me so content when he approved.

Each of them had their own way of tackling the puzzle. Sarah would just sit there staring at the puzzle as if trying to figure it all out in her head before cautiously making a move. Megan on the other hand would try randomly putting pieces together and hoping they would fit. Katie seemed to be a pro at this with a strategy already in mind and doing quite well. I mostly just observed everybody else and placed puzzles pieces in the right spot whenever I felt the need. Maybe it would have been nice having sisters.

Tom made an appearance and joined in. "Ohhh a puzzle." He seemed to have a good handle on it as well.

I came to the conclusion that they did puzzles often being that they didn't have to grow up learning how to fight, to survive, for revenge; those were the things I lived for. But that all changed, now I wasn't sure what to live for anymore. The only thing driving me was my thirst for knowledge but I really had no idea what the future would hold for me. All I could really do was live in the here and now. My brothers were at even more of a loss of what to do now. For the moment, I guess I could learn about humanity, get an education, and try working in the real world; the type of goals that people like this family had.

----

The time just flew by and before I knew it; it was time to eat. There was a nice spread of food on the table and it could almost initiate drooling. It was weird to think back to the days when we barely had any food and hunger was a standard at the time. So I was feeling quite thankful except for the fact that I wouldn't be spending time with my family. It was a little depressing to think that this would become a more and more common. There was turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, bread rolls, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie.

"Everything was delicious." I told Mary and Bill after the meal and my stomach could attest to that; I was so full of food.

"Glad you enjoyed it Don." Mary smiled at me as she and Bill got up leaving the dining room, only the offspring were left. I helped the four of them put everything away and wash dishes. We had a nice assembly line going: Katie washed, Sarah and Megan dried, and I helped Tom put each dish where it belonged.

Afterwards Tom decided we should watch a movie so Sarah and Megan looked through their massive DVD collection and decided on Shrek. Mikey seemed to love that movie so it was a bit strange not watching it with him as he annoyingly repeated every single line.

For supper we had leftover turkey sandwiches and it was a more causal meal.

"Hey Don, tomorrow we're going shopping for all the door buster deals." I just blinked at Tom and wondered if his whole family had gone insane. He handed an ad over to me and I glanced at it seeing how early that particular store opened. Five am!? Can Tom get up that early? I had heard stories about how crazy black Friday could be and I definitely didn't want to be a part of it. Plus I was a little weary about being in public even now. If I was dragged to a city I've never been to with people unprepared to see me; who knows what could happen. A giant headache began to form in my head.

"Ug..do I have to come as well?" Tom got that annoying grin on his face and slapped the back of my shell.

"Of course silly. We're not going to make you stay here all alone all day." Great just great, something to dread.

"But I don't think it's a good idea you know me being the way I look in a strange place." Tom broke out into laughter, his face turning all red.

"Just kidding, little buddy, I hate going shopping so I'm staying behind tomorrow. It'll just be you and me." I sighed with relief, closed my eyes for a few seconds, and thought about doing horrible things to him.

"Good." Tom looked worriedly at me; all the laughter was out of his system.

"You okay, Don?"

"Yeah, just fine." I quickly looked away before realizing that I stupidly revealed I was avoiding him. No everything was not fine; I missed my family, I was scared of shopping, and things between Lucy and I were bad. Now when did that come up; so what if she didn't want to talk to me anymore; it was just as well, me being abnormal and all.

"Don't worry Don, everything's going to be okay." I gave him a confused look. What?

"Everything is okay." I answered stubbornly back, why must I have so much pride? He smiled.

"That's right." I blinked and faked a yawn.

"I'm just tired is all; I'm going to bed now." I turned away from him and made my way to the stairs. I heard him give a frustrated sigh, I paused wondering if I did anything wrong but decided to keep going, straight to my sleeping quarters. I stripped off my clothes and pulled on some warm PJ's. The room was chilly probably from the wide-open spaces constantly blowing wind on the vulnerable house. I slipped under the covers not really understanding how I felt or even what to do about it. My mind was a mess and yet I somehow was able to fall asleep with no dreams, sparing my mind any more strange thoughts.

I awoke, once again feeling alone, and I made my way out of bed and downstairs. The house was quiet and felt so empty. I skimmed through the books on the shelf in the den, trying to figure out what to do with myself today. I decided against waking up Tom and instead allowed him to sleep in as late as he wanted. Talking to him now would be awkward anyways. I wasn't in the mood to talk to anybody at the moment; I felt so bad the way I acted towards Tom though so I wondered if he could forgive me.

I gave up trying to find a book and decided to just sit there and clear my mind. So I just sat there, blankly for who knows how long in deep meditation.

"Hey Don? You sleeping?" All my thoughts were abruptly interrupted and I cracked an eye open and all I could do was laugh. Why couldn't I stop? All I knew was that it felt good, really good. Tom laughed along with me, put an arm around my shoulder, and I knew everything would be okay.

End of chapter 7

I have no idea when the next update will be. I've got one more semester of my Masters program left and I've been busy working on my thesis so I'm going to be pretty busy in the next few months. I will try to write when I can. Till next time.


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